Bolotbek Shamshiyev

Based on the novella “The Smugglers of the Tian Shan”, this popular Kyrgyz film takes place in the 1920s and uses the basic formula of the Red Western: a Bolshevik superman fights a violent native gang of opium traffickers.
Somewhere in Kyrgyzstan in the 1920s, the pro-Soviet guard Karabalta (‘Black Axe’) detects secret paths in the mountains used by smugglers to transport opium across the Soviet border.
Meanwhile, a strange man named ‘Golden Mouth’ offers to accompany a patrol unit led by the Russian commander Kondraty, promising to help find these smugglers and their camp. A mission to find the opium cache is complicated by kidnappers and other disasters. […]
The film is distinguished by superb camera work, praising the beauty of Kyrgyzstan’s wild nature in lavish widescreen images.Read More »

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Heat was Shepitko’s diploma feature, her extraordinary talent underlined by its unprecedented success, winning prizes at the Leningrad and Karlovy Vary Film Festivals. It was also made in gruelling conditions on the barren steppes, the young director falling ill and having to direct from a stretcher. The story fuses serious political drama and cowboy showdown as an idealistic high school graduate goes to work on a state farm, only to clash with its authoritarian, Stalinist leader.Read More »